Dive Brief


ONTARIO ASKED FOR INPUT IN CREATING AN UNDERWATER PRESERVE


F and the Text by Stephen Weir


our New York counties, a small upstate city and the State of New York itself have asked the Province of Ontario, the Ontario Underwater Council, Save Ontario Shipwreck


association to support a plan to create a shipwreck preserve and marine habitat in the Eastern end of Lake Ontario. The Province is being urged by Ontario divers to


consider American adding its own


preserve in the wreck rich area of the lake near Prince Edward County and Amherst Island. The


counties Jefferson,


Oswego, Cayuga and Wayne, the City of Oswego and the New York State government are proposing the creation of an underwater and wreck conservation zone for south eastern Lake Ontario. The project


protect, promote and create economies around such submerged resources”.


takes in 1,746 square miles (4522 sq km) of water with depths ranging from the shallows to 802 feet (245m), and borders 173 miles (278 km) of US shoreline along the southern border of the lake. “The


National Oceanic and


Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) manages the National Marine Sanctuary System in US waters, including our side of the Great Lakes,” said Phil Church, Oswego


County Administrator and


NMS Task Force Chairman. “NOAA is, for the first time in 20-years, accepting nominations to add new National Marine Sanctuaries to the 15 it has already established [in US salt and fresh waters].” This


unique opportunity


is designed to “preserve, It


western border of Wayne County. “In our end of Lake Ontario we have identified 17 shipwrecks that should be protected. There could be 52 more [including


two aircraft] Proposed


national marine sanctuary area


but NOAA has


prompted these partners to ask the US Federal Government to preserve, protect and promote the submerged resources and those shore-based resources that adjoin them.


The underwater park’s northern most boundary is the Canadian / American border. Since much of those waters fall in the International Shipping Lanes of Lake Ontario, jurisdiction falls to the two Federal Governments, the State of New York and the Province of Ontario. On land, the proposed park begins just


south of Canada’s Wolfe Island, near the Village of Cape Vincent, and reaches the


14 Magazine


hasn’t done an inventory here like it has done in [other Great Lakes].” T he wreck of the St. Peter is on the National Register of Historic Places, and another, the David W. Mills, is a New York State Submerged Cultural Preserve and Dive Site. New York “has been working on this for some time and the project labour of love," said


Ron Bogart, the


president of the Ontario Underwater Council (OUC). This is something “we would need to find a similar champion for north of the border.” Bogart continued, “The OUC


recognizes the rare


opportunity [to create an underwater wreck preserve in Lake Ontario]. The council is excited to support enthusiastic and collaborative efforts to showcase the maritime heritage in the eastern Lake Ontario region.” Save Ontario Shipwrecks (SOS) has given verbal support to the proposal and will be submitting a written brief. In the past the SOS has been in support of the


David W. Mills is a true


was a 210ft (65m) long cargo ship


that sunk in 1894. In 2000 the Mills


was designated as New York State’s first Submerged


Cultural Preserve and Dive Site in Lake Ontario.


St. peter is called Lake Ontario’s


most impressive shipwreck. The 147 ft (45m) long


schooner stands in 130ft (40m)


near the port of Putneyville, NY


creation of Lake Ontario underwater wreck preserves. Micheal Coteau, the Minister of Sport in Ontario, has received a brief from the American-based group. He has not yet responded; however, in the past his government has supported wreck heritage legislation, including controls on the remains of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior (which is actually in Federally controlled waters) and the War of 1812 Hamilton and Scourge US warship wrecks near Hamilton in Lake Ontario. The American team will soon be presenting their plans to NOAA.


It


could be sometime before NOAA makes a decision on the Lake Ontario park. However, it has already accepted an application to create the Lake Erie Quadrangle. This


sanctuary which includes all Lake Erie waters


will in


Pennsylvania, including


Presque Isle Bay, from Ohio to New York and north to the lake’s Canadian border line. miles


(123km) of Erie and


Pennsylvania shoreline and 759 square miles (1965 sq km) of wreck-filled Lake Erie water.


It will encompass 76.6 County


be a national marine


Map courtesy of: Great Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary


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